With the house rules for sorcery in Blades & Black Magic coming together, I got to thinking about how magic could work with monsters. You would think the system would be consistent, right?
Magic System Foundation
A little background… My house rules for sorcery use a form of improvisational magic, with spell effects being put into a series of grades or ranks. Each rank has a cost in ST to cast that spell. You "buy down" the cost for a spell by selecting different features or things to do to cast it. By its nature, this system helps develop magic spells with tons of color and flavor.
That system of trade-off got me thinking, though–could the same concept apply to monsters? It reminded me of the way the dragons of Melniboné in the Elric books had to sleep for a period of time after they flew or were used in combat. It also reminded me of the movie Excalibur, where Merlin said he had to sleep for almost a year after summoning the Dragon to help Uther lie with Igraine and even Smaug in The Hobbit as well.
Could a system be developed that baked monsters’ abilities and weaknesses into their design, that balanced them out? Much like character creation in GURPS, but with a zero-sum equilibrium as the end result? The idea being that great powers led to great weaknesses… Is that even possible?
Before I go further, I need to quickly digress for a moment. I have been a long time fan of the game Best Left Buried. Its take on monsters is really cool–almost every one is unique; monsters are not named, instead they are described and the players name them–and it has a system of abilities and weaknesses for monsters. See where I’m going?
Magic and Monsters
Combining all of these ideas, I think a workable solution does exist. I’m not there completely yet, but I am getting close.
I think the solution would start with the understanding that monsters would add up to a zero-sum equilibrium state. Natural beasts would already be defined as existing in that state, so they would not be considered. For others–fantastical creatures, undead, messengers and outsiders–these rules should apply.
So the idea would be to select from a list of "abilities" for the monster, then try to balance them with "weaknesses." This could be done with a straight count of abilities (+1) and weaknesses (-1). Another option would be trying to match the abilities and weaknesses with the Rank that a corresponding spell should have and using the plusses and minuses of that rank (+/- 0 through 3). For example, a monster could have an ability worth +2, then two weaknesses worth 2 x -1, so +2 cancels out the -2.
I have a great start of a list from Best Left Buried, along with descriptions of a plethora of monsters from Blades and other games. One of the other cool things about Best Left Buried is that the monster building rules are not hard and fast–you can adapt a given ability to suit a particular monster’s story.
So the theory here is to:
- Create a list of abilities and weaknesses. These can be simple one-for-one or with ranks (0-3).
- Take each monster and match up the abilities and weaknesses to tell the story that you want.
- Buy off the abilities with weaknesses, and then explain all of the plusses and minuses somehow, ending with a zero sum.
Keep in mind this is a theory so far–I am still going through various creatures and trying to see if this can match up. I’m not at a point where I can declare victory, but I am getting close!
What the Future Holds
But what next? Well, what I want to do is make sure I can translate this idea into actual rules that generally explain known monsters. After that I will update the Bestiary with those rules, and publish the rules themselves under the House Rules section.
But the first thing I want to do is finish my gathering of ideas for a list of abilities and weaknesses. I think I can do an initial cut at this, just enough to design a few monsters, then build on it over time. I am starting with the list from Best Left Buried, then adding in what I find in the monster write ups in Blades & Black Magic. I’ll then see what I can find in Heroes & Other Worlds, The Fantasy Trip and even Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
In conjunction with this, I’ll be testing some rules to see if this will really work out. Again, I’ll start with the monsters in Blades, and make sure that a baseline of creatures works first.
Once I have the first draft of these rules worked out, I plan to post them here on untold-realms.com. The rules and the list of abilities & weaknesses will evolve over time, so I will let everyone know when I update them.
After that, I will work on updating creature write ups to use the rules, and start adding more as I can work them out. This will include bespoke monsters as well.
So in the end, I’m not 100% sure this will all work out, but I really am digging the concept or idea of this. I really like how the magic system balances effects with these requirements to make the spell work, and I see this system for monsters doing the same for them. It will also allow Referees to more easily tweak monsters with different abilities in order to keep players guessing!
But what do you think? Do you think this will work? Is it too much? Let me know in the comments!
Marko ∞
